This paper is a polemical discussion of assessment in teacher education. Working from the proposition that assessment serves a number of important purposes for a range of stakeholders (students, employers, quality assurance agencies, government), it argues that there is considerable potential for conflict between the different purposes. In an age…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences of RCE Hamburg, one of the latest Regional Centres of Excellence (RCE) to be created. It outlines the activities performed by the RCE and describes its relationships with the various stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: A description of the region where the RCE is located is…

Purpose: Utilising data from 18 in-depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call…

This paper provides a table that contains a summary of resources available that support the National High School Center's "Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework". This framework is based on eight common elements of systemic school reform and provides a structure for understanding, aligning, and prioritizing…

Since the first child care Quality Rating System (QRS) was implemented in Oklahoma 11 years ago (in 1998), 16 additional statewide systems have been launched and numerous states are piloting or developing a QRS (Zaslow, Tout, & Martinez-Beck, forthcoming). As QRS stakeholders across the nation look ahead to the next decade, it is important to take…

The research presented in this report examines the effect of prison-based postsecondary education (PSE) on offenders both while incarcerated and after release. Urban Institute researchers worked with the staff of four institutions in three states to conduct inmate focus groups and stakeholder interviews to explore the motivations for enrolling in…

Leadership expectations for school principals have dramatically changed since the 1983 report to Congress, "A Nation at Risk", inspired a renewed focus on the persistent educational underachievement of minority students in the United States. Today, school leaders must get out from behind the desk and actively empower an increasingly…

A diverse society has created a diverse education system, which in turn requires diverse and complex mechanisms of quality control. The diversity and complexity of the industrial, service, and knowledge-based economy, with its vast variety of occupations and dynamic labor markets, heavily influences the curricular structures and academic profiles…

Though the number of districts with student-based funding-type (SBF) policies has grown, the literature on the implementation and possible impacts of these policies is limited. To address this, this report describes the implementation of SBF policies in two California school districts--San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified…

Alberta Education conducts a set of annual telephone surveys to obtain feedback from education system stakeholders regarding their perceptions of Alberta's education system. Respondents for the survey include senior high school students, parents of children in the K-12 education system, parents of children with severe special needs, teachers in…

Confronting two unhealthy approaches that surface frequently in philanthropy--the tendency for grantmakers to think they alone have all the answers and the tensions that arise when national and local funders try to work together--this case study is intended to help grantmakers think more deeply about the concept of "engaged partners," one of…

This paper presents evidence collected from an evaluatory study of the Kickstart program conducted by Australian Football League (AFL) Cape York in far North Queensland. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Kickstart program in meeting its overall objective of enhancing lifeskills of Indigenous Australians through…

The Supreme Court first affirmed the importance of academic freedom in 1957. Yet in subsequent cases, First Amendment precedent has displaced the concept of academic freedom to resolve disputes among competing interests on public campuses, primarily in favor of institutions. This paper draws on the concepts of path dependence and policy space to…

This report presents the findings of the formative evaluation of the Understanding the Early Years (UEY) Initiative. The evaluation was conducted to examine issues of implementation and design, early progress in achieving immediate objectives, and issues related to accountability. The evaluation team was also asked to provide preliminary guidance…

Weerts' model of Institutional Commitment to Community Outreach and Engagement (2005) was adapted in this qualitative action research case study to fill a gap in the literature regarding: (a) a private university president's role in promoting "A Private University with a Public Purpose"; and (b) differences between public and private university…